Congo in Flames

Congo in Flames

Democratic Republic of Congo government soldiers in North Kivu prepare for an operation against local militia

By Anna PozziThe political crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo is worsening; violence and chaos spread in many regions of the country. Peaceful protests by Catholics who oppose the increasingly authoritarian regime have been met with an exceedingly violent response and even more ominous threats.

Dead and wounded in Kinshasa and Mbandaka; three priests arrested in Kisangani; dispersed demonstrations in Lubumbashi, Kikwit, and Goma; prevented demonstrations in Bukavu and Beni; while in Mbuji Maji local parish compounds were surrounded by police. Meanwhile, the massacres in Ituri, the attacks in South Kivu, and rapes in the North continue undeterred.

The daily news coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo is that of a war: of a gangrenous and turbulent situation that is deteriorating from day to day. This violent situation in the DRC has caused at least six million deaths in the last 20 years, especially in the eastern regions, an African holocaust.

Currently, almost four million people are displaced from their homes, and hundreds of thousands more are refugees in neighboring countries; not to mention the almost one hundred thousand children fleeing from the looted and torched villages in the Ituri region since the beginning of February. Still, another one and a half million people in the DRC suffer from a widespread famine.

Yet, if it were not for the untiring voice of Pope Francis, who continues to draw attention to this as well as other extremely serious situations of conflict and humanitarian crisis from South Sudan to Syria, very few would notice the catastrophe that has befallen this great and very rich African nation. It is a nation that is inching a bit more towards its demise each and every day on account of its extraordinary mineral wealth coupled with the obtuseness and greed of its ruling class along with their many accomplices within and without.

The opacity of the country’s financial management does enough to harm the region by itself, particularly that of the vast mining exploitation sector: gold, coltan, copper, cassiterite, diamonds and more. However, when combined with a political crisis that has dragged on for over a year, and the various situations of insecurity that destabilize different regions; they all make up the Democratic Republic of Congo that we have today: one teetering on the brink of an abyss.

A “War of Wars” is devastating this huge country of almost 85 million inhabitants, and over 200 ethnic groups, and not a new one, either. “Our country has experimented with different types of violence through wars that are called with all kinds of names: war of independence, war of liberation, war for natural resources, occupation war, retaliation wars and so on. This situation has made so many victims, numbered in millions.”Wrote the president of the National Episcopal Conference of the Congo (CENCO) on behalf of his colleague Bishop Marcel Utembi Tapa, on the occasion of the Day of Prayer for Peace on February 23.

Many more deaths could be added this year alone to the long list of victims of the violence that is spreading throughout the country.

Moreover, 2018 began in the worst possible way, with the brutal repressions of marches promoted by the Lay Coordination Committee of Catholics (CLC). On December 31, 2017, law enforcement officers fired at protesters who wielded crosses, Bibles, and olive branches. A demonstration made on the symbolic date of the signature of the 2016 New Year’s Eve Accord: which was supposed to lead to new elections, after the expiration of President Joseph Kabila’s second term. The numerous victims and wounded have not discouraged the protesters who are firmly opposed to the president’s attempt to perpetuate himself in power. New elections have been called for December 23rd and Kabila has declared to his minister of communication, but still has yet to confirm it himself, that he will not run. Still, nobody believes these promises.

Indeed, the indignation of the Congolese is spreading everywhere, and has taken the form of new demonstrations organized by the CLC; which also triggered harsh repressions by men in uniform. Resulting in at least fifteen deaths at the end of February, and hundreds more injured.

Cardinal Kinshasa Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya called it a “barbarism”. Who, after facilitating the New Year’s Eve Accord, used harsh words to designate an increasingly corrupt ruling class: one entrenched in power and hell-bent on the systematic plundering of the country’s resources. “A group of mediocre fellows who should be stepping aside,” the cardinal had thundered last January. In reaction to his thunderous remarks he was accused of being a “failed coup organizer” by Rural Development Minister Justin Bitakwira, who had added in an ominous fashion: “Not everything should be allowed in this country.”

He is not the only one to lash out with threats and intimidation against the Catholic Church. An institution that represents more than half of the population and is the only one to be present at grassroots level throughout the country and not controlled by the State. According to the Episcopal Conference there would be a “campaign of discrediting and defamation,” which also would result in violent acts, arrests of priests, damage to churches, and looting of ecclesiastical structures. At the end of February, a large group of supporters of President Kabila arrived to ostensibly occupy the area in front of the Kinshasa Cathedral. The bishops ask themselves: “Why so many deaths, injuries, arrests, kidnappings, attacks on parishes and ecclesiastical communities, humiliation, torture, intimidation, desecration of churches, prohibitions to pray?”

South African Casspirs (Mine-resistant transport armored personnel carriers) in UN colors during operations in the DRC near Masisi.

This is obviously a rhetorical question: “[It is the fault of] The national and international community.” they claim, “[it] is witnessing a series of campaigns of intoxication, discreditation and defamation aimed at weakening the moral strength of the Church, and particularly of Cardinal Monsengwo, and to divert the attention of the population from real problems.”

Very high tones, and empty words, but then what of the violence that threatens to spread like wildfire? As in fact, it is happening.

“We are not facing a democratic regime; we are facing a dictatorial regime. The world must realize this. We are facing a regime that has no respect for human life. For this we will continue until the end. But how many deaths do we need before the international community realizes that what’s happening in the DRC is a real drama?” Denounces one of the main leaders of the CLC, Professor Thierry Nlandu Mayamba, a professor of Anglo-American literature at the University of Kinshasa.

The Lay Catholic Coordination Committee has now imposed itself on the social and political scene of DRC as the main opposition movement to the regime. That is why it received its share of threats and insults: “An anarchist Christian-style movement that hides anarchist methods under an angelic cover and pietism” was what former Deputy Premier and Minister of the Interior Emmanuel Ramazani Shadari called it.

Nevertheless, the CLC is gathering more and more support and consensus in every part of the country. On the occasion of the March 25th demonstration, for example, 152 civil society associations gave their support to the Committee and deployed almost 1,700 “observers” in all the parishes of Kinshasa, to counteract what they call a serious “deterioration of conditions in citizens’ exercise of their rights and freedoms.” Also Jean-Paul Katende, president of the Association Africaine de Défense des Droits de L’Homme (African Association for the Defense of Human Rights, Asadho), estimates that as long as Kabila remains in power there can be no democratic alternative.“The crisis of this current policy is created by the President and by the presidential majority as they have not respected the terms of office prescribed by the Constitution. And looking at the electoral process as it is presently set up, we are sure that there will be no elections or, if they take place, they will be organized for the benefit of the ruling majority.”

This serious political crisis unfolds on top of a whole series of situations of conflict, guerrilla warfare, instability, ethnic tensions, and external interference that devastate different areas of the country.

Currently, the most explosive situation is that of the Ituri region, on the border with Uganda and South Sudan; where at the beginning of February identity tensions that were never completely dormant, reignited. Tensions that resulted in hundreds of deaths, the destruction of dozens of villages, schools, hospitals, and the flight of over 200 thousand displaced persons. It is a dramatic repetition that had already killed over 50 thousand dead and caused a half a million people to flee in between 1999 and 2002. Today again, “it is mostly women and children that are targeted,” according to the testimony of the bishop of Bunia, Msgr. Dieudonné Uringi. In a report of the local Caritas there is the suspicion that behind these seemingly inter-ethnic clashes, political interests are hidden that are linked precisely to this delicate phase of the electoral process.

Even the regions of North and South Kivu are struggling to find peace and stability after more than two decades of conflict that is responsible for millions of deaths and tens of thousands of women to be raped, more than anywhere else in the country. Still at the end of February, there were 60 cases of rape reported in the Masisi area within three weeks. Now, new dead and wounded are discovered in the north, the area of Walungu in South Kivu or at Goma where Mai Mai militias would be involved.

However, in these two regions rich in minerals and infested by dozens of armed groups, we no longer know who fights against whom or for what; if not to destabilize the territory and allow the continued exploitation of undisturbed resources in the soil, then for what? Moreover, even the army here seems to be more a part of the problem than of the solution. The same UN contingent sent to aid the people, present with thousands of men, is particularly unpopular with the population because some blue helmets have been involved in human trafficking, violence, and rape.

Finally, just to mention the most serious situations, in the Great Kasai province it is difficult to absorb the explosion of unprecedented violence that saw the clashing of the national army and a local opposition movement; resulting in thousands of deaths, mass rapes, mutilated children, and nearly a million and a half displaced back in the middle of 2017. The UN, which also lost two of its young observers, has discovered about forty mass graves. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spoke of crimes against humanity, and one of the most forgotten crises in the world.

“Faced with this type of situation,” says the president of the Episcopal Conference, Msgr. Utembi, “it is not easy to promote active nonviolence, respectful dialogue; it is not easy to hope to live in peace. It is in this context that the Church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo tries to fulfill its prophetic role for a people that aspire to justice, peace, well-being, reconciliation, and the rule of law.” A great challenge that will accompany the Church and civil society along this crucial year, littered already with many pitfalls.